The ESF is designed to stimulate job-creation schemes in member states by providing finance for suitably vetted projects. It operates on the ‘matching funds’ principle, with the Commission usually providing 50% of the finance and national authorities making up the shortfall.

However, the scheme has been widely criticised in recent years. In 1995, almost one-quarter of the 7.4 billion ecu available was never spent, and critics have pointed out that the ESF is poorly coordinated with the much larger European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

In a bid to counter these criticisms, the Commission, as part of Agenda 2000, hopes to take a much more ‘hands-off’ approach to managing the ESF.

“We would like to move towards a system in which we agree a strategic framework with each member state, incorporating clear targets and bench-marks, and then see Brussels withdraw from detailed programme management to concentrate instead on monitoring and evaluating performance,” explained Hywel Ceri Jones, second-in-command at the Commission’s Directorate-General for social affairs (DGV).

The Commission has, in the past, complained that it has been blamed for bad management of ESF projects when problems and delays were caused mainly by national governments.

The Commission is also proposing that ESF money be more clearly targeted in future towards five key areas: encouraging people back to work (with particular priority given to the young and long-term unemployed); providing assistance for homeless people and those on the margins of society; promoting education and training; ensuring major industrial restructuring such as factory closure is properly planned; and encouraging more women to enter the labour market.